Inviting the Tax Man In

Last fall when we got our property tax bill, I got to wondering about the assessed value of our land and whether it seemed too high. On our tax notices, they split out the value of the land and the value of the structures, so you can see how they’ve assessed each component. Our land has the added complication that all but one acre are in “open space AG,” (OSA) the reduced tax rate given to land that’s in active agriculture status. The land is taxed at “current use” instead of “best use”, so it’s given a lower assessed value. I decided to do a little research to see how our values compare with neighboring properties.

 

199: The Final

Our county building permit system has a convenient method for calling in inspection requests by phone. You punch in your permit number, and a code for which inspection you want done, and an inspector is usually dispatched the next day.

The permit paper prints out with all of the expected categories that need to be approved for your type of project: 110 for footings, 115 for framing, 305 for underslab plumbing, 325 for mechanical rough-in, 315 for plumbing rough-in, 345 for water service, 160 for insulation, etc., etc. As inspectors come and go, they sign in the little boxes next to the codes (or write you friendly correction notices instead, as the case may be). Slowly, you fill up the piece of paper with new milestones completed.

And the pinnacle is 199: The Final. We have earned a fancy dinner out to celebrate that last signature. Cheers to completion!

 

The End is Near

We have continued to be pretty swamped with finishing the electrical work in our barn. The rough-in was signed off with no correction list-yay for us! As was the bathroom insulation job. We’ll have the fanciest, most cozy barn bathroom ever, with R15 insulation, a solid core door, and an exhaust fan. Gotta meet residential code, ya know?

 

Wiring Madness

The last “big” stage of our barn construction was to wire in lights and outlets. We had originally budgeted for hiring an electrician; but had a contingency that we’d do it ourselves if we had unexpected expenses. Our budget actually went pretty well overall, but bringing in power was more than we thought, and we’d like to reserve some money for other improvements, so we went ahead and tackled the wiring ourselves.

 

Powering the Barn

One of the big things left to do on our barn is get power installed and finish all the wiring. We have been waiting a long time for the power company to bring in power. I initiated plans with them in December. They are none too speedy. And it is costing a lot of money to bring power from the street back to our barn. A lot.